After doing the IPF H4 headlight conversion on my XJ, my 130 watt KCs didn't seem so bright anymore. That, and they drained a lot of power... I could literally watch the volt gauge move. I decided to convert my KCs to HID, which is short for High Intensity Discharge. HIDs provide much more light, and draw less power.

WARNING: These lights are for OFFROAD use only. You WILL blind other drivers and WILL get pulled over if you use these on the road. Also, be carefull when installing it, these kits can put out up to 23,000 volts when in operation.

I got the kit from HID Kits, BMW Aftermarket Bumpers & Lighting, DEPO - DDM Tuning . You can choose between 35 and 55 watt kits, as well as the color between 3000K and 12000K. Make sure you get the kit for the H3 bulb. The higher the color number (12000K) the more blue the light will be. The most useable light (whiter light) is between 4000K and 6000K. I went with a 5000K bulb, and 55 watt just because I like to go all out when it comes to lights.

First, I removed the KC covers, the grill, and the headlight surrounds. I found it easier to work with the wires this way.

Everything removed:

Next I took apart what came in the kit. Theres two ballasts, and two HID bulbs. Make sure not to touch the bulbs with your hands, since the oils on your hands will create a hot spot on the bulb and burn it out faster. The red arrows below plug into the existing KC (or other light) wiring harness. The blue arrows plug into the bulbs, which are in the plastic cases as seen below.

In order to plug the HID wiring harness into the KC harness, I had to put different crimp plugs onto the KC harness. This only took about 5 minutes.

Next, I took apart the KC lights. Fairly simple. Just pulled out the existing bulb completely and the wires attached to it. I saved the bulbs since they were still good. After that I installed the HID bulb into the KC housing. The bulb fits in the spot perfectly, since its an H3 type bulb. The only problem is with the mechanism that secures the bulb in. It still is used to hold the bulb in but takes some messing with to make it fit right. After bending it with some pliers I was able to secure the bulb as seen below.

The other issue with the KC housing is that the wires exit the back through a tiny hole. This means the big plastic connectors won't fit through. I cut the wires, pushed them through, then crimped them back together. Make sure you label which one is the positive wire, since the wires going to the bulb are both black. It helps to lay out the HID wiring harness ahead of time and put tape around the positive wires coming from the bulbs. This makes them easier to identify later.

The next step is to find a place to mount the ballast. I chose to mount it right behind the bumper. Those of you who ford deep water might want to locate them higher. If I decide to do something like that in the future I will move mine. The kit comes with double sided tape. I put some in between the two ballasts and then between the ballasts and the back of the bumper. I then used many zip ties to secure it down. A lot more than you see there, that was just to hold it up while I wired it.

The next step is to plug the HID harness into the KC harness. Take the wires identified by the RED arrows in the picture and plug them into the existing light harness.

Then plug the wires identified by the BLUE arrows in the above picture into the bulb wires. This is all pretty easy, since the plugs for each harness are all different.

Heres a few pics right after the install. The HID bulbs are pretty bright initially, but get even brighter once they are completely warmed up, which can take a couple seconds. Do yourself a favor and don't look right at them like I did.

I haven't had any heat issues. I did feel the ballasts and some of the wires after running them for a bit to see if anything got excessively warm. The KC housings do get a bit warm, but they got hotter with the old bulbs in there.

One thing I did notice is that you can't turn them off and on right away. Seems if you turn them off and on quickly that only one will come on, or none at all. Seems they need like 30 seconds before you can turn them on again. Not sure why that is but there doesn't seem to be anything causing it.

That is correct, I'm pretty experienced with hids. You're not supposed to flick them on and off because of the strain it puts on the ballasts. You need to give it a good 30 or so seconds before turning them back on if you want them to last a while. Same thing for turning them on, keep 'em on and let them warm up before flicking them off

That is correct, I'm pretty experienced with hids. You're not supposed to flick them on and off because of the strain it puts on the ballasts. You need to give it a good 30 or so seconds before turning them back on if you want them to last a while. Same thing for turning them on, keep 'em on and let them warm up before flicking them off

oh okay thanks. I've never really read anything about that so I wasn't sure. Thanks for clearing that up! This is my first experience with HIDs.

theyre pretty sick actually but they come at a price, they tend to be pretty temperamental but judging by the pictures it looks like you got a good set and they're happy with how you set 'em up. I'm really jealous of that light output but it wont be long before mine are in hahahah I need to upgrade the bumper lights first though

theyre pretty sick actually but they come at a price, they tend to be pretty temperamental but judging by the pictures it looks like you got a good set and they're happy with how you set 'em up. I'm really jealous of that light output but it wont be long before mine are in hahahah I need to upgrade the bumper lights first though

At the end of my write up I included some other write ups from other forums. I recommend going with the Ranger forums write up on the Hella 700FFs. The KCs that I did are a long range pattern. I can see very far down the road, but its a pencil beam pattern. The Hellas have a driving beam pattern and would give a wider spread of light. I'm happy with the KCs but if I could do it over I probably would have gone with a driving light.

actually my best friend has a WK thats quite tricked out and now he wants HIDs on his roof rack. he has hella 500ff's on his roof rack and HID would be insane but I can't think of anywhere to keep them semi-dry except for putting them on the back of the air deflector. I also installed HID headlights for him we got a projector headlight setup so the beam is wide and has a sharp vertical cutoff like the expensive luxury cars, looks great heres some pics:

Projector headlights on, yes those are on. We got great quality headlights and aimed them perfectly, there is 0 glare whatsoever. You only see it if you lay down on the road and look up at the lights, then they blind you completely
Heres what it looks like projected on my garage, very bright and sharp cutoff
Heres with the 100w roof hellas and 100w bumper hellas on (not even hid yet)
And heres my friend standing 300 feet away, yeouch